Grant available for patent and trade mark fees Thursday 2 Aug 2018

Did you know that Australian businesses with overseas patent or trade mark costs could be eligible for a grant that would see them recoup up to $25,000 of their patent and trade mark fees? Find out more about the Export Market Development Grant program.

The Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) program is the Federal government’s ﬂagship program to assist Australian exporters break into and exploit opportunities in export markets. This is a 40-year old program, however, many patent and trade mark attorneys are not aware that their fees for overseas patent work, including Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and overseas ﬁlings, foreign attorney fees and the like are eligible to claim under this generous grant program.

Historically, access to the EMDG program was limited to businesses involved in exporting goods or services from Australia. The federal government recently recognised that intellectual property (IP) can be exploited in a variety of ways (such as licencing, partnering with manufacturers, and so on), and given the value of IP to Australia’s export economy, the EMDG program has been expanded to support the export-focused commercialisation efforts of Australia-based IP developers and owners of IP.